"Every city in the world is the most prosperous, except for the capital city Wu Xiayou!"
"This Suzhou City is indeed the most prosperous county in the world!"
Looking at the majestic and tall city wall with staggered bricks and stones, Chongzhen on the carriage sighed.
Even though the sun sets over the mountains, there is still a queue of two or three miles long outside Suzhou City.
Suzhou City was called Wu in ancient times, also known as Gusu.
At Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, the midnight bell rang to the passenger ship. A poem by Zhang Ji has made the name of Gusu spread for thousands of years, and it is also the most elegant name for fireworks in the world.
However, since the city was founded in the twelfth year of King Ling of Zhou Dynasty, the city of Suzhou has been repeatedly attacked by wars. It has been built up and destroyed several times. With every war, the city of Suzhou has become a land of ruins.
The most recent one was in the 27th year of the Zhizheng period, when Zhang Shicheng refused to defend Suzhou. Taizu led his troops to besiege Suzhou for ten months and bombarded it with artillery day and night. After Zhang Shicheng was defeated, he set fire to Qiyun Tower, and both the sub-city and the big city were destroyed.
But because of the water conservancy in the southeast, Suzhou is the most important; people from the southeast are the most prosperous in Suzhou. A few years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou once again became the most prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty.
There is a saying that Suzhou is the most important in terms of wealth in the southeast.
Compared to entering the pier, entering the city was very fast. I waited for about a quarter of an hour before entering the city.
There was a huge noise, people were constantly coming and going on the street, vendors gathered, carriages pulling goods and businessmen chatting everywhere could be seen on the roadside.
Li Ruolian, who was driving the car, whispered: "Master, let's go to the restaurant to have dinner first and have a taste of the local Suzhou flavor, and then go back to the courtyard we purchased in advance!"
"Okay, I want to look around too!"
Chongzhen responded and continued to look at the people passing by on the street through the car window, seeming to be thinking about something.
It took nearly two-quarters of an hour for the carriage to arrive at Deyue Tower, the most famous building in Suzhou City, on the endlessly flowing streets.
When the waiter who greeted Li Ruolian at the door said that he had reserved a private room in Guanghan Palace, he immediately nodded and bowed to lead him into the private room.
"Gentlemen, what should we eat? Our most famous ones are squirrel mandarin fish, Deyue Tong chicken, Xi Shi Wan Yue, honey juice fire recipe, eel paste with oil, Fuli duck soup, Biluo shrimp...""
"Okay, take a copy of what I just said!"
Chongzhen knocked on the table, then thought of the red bean porridge that Queen Zhou mentioned, and immediately asked: "Is there any red bean porridge?"
"Sir, you are an expert. Although this red bean porridge is sold by hawkers on the streets, it is the most effective test of a restaurant chef's cooking skills.
Our Deyuelou’s red bean porridge is unique in Suzhou. The red beans and porridge are made separately, and the red beans are made into bean paste. The red bean paste is poured on after the porridge is served. It has the beauty of red clouds covering the white snow, we..."
"Okay, this is a reward for you, go and get ready!"
Li Ruolian threw out a small piece of money, about two coins.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm used to it, I'm used to it, I'm going to prepare wine and food for you guys!"
The waiter who took the money smiled happily, put the towel on his shoulders, and quickly exited the private room.
Even though Deyuelou is the largest restaurant in Suzhou, the wages are not bad, but the consumption is high. These two coins are equivalent to three days' wages.
Two-quarters of an hour later, all the dishes were served. Chongzhen, who had driven more than ten days in a row, looked at the large table of dishes and his appetite was instantly whetted.
He didn't even greet Li Ruolian, Cao Bianjiao and others. Even after he did, he didn't dare to sit down and eat with him.
After he had eaten and drank enough, looking at the streets where people were still coming and going when the lights were on, Chongzhen took a sip of Biluochun with his tea cup and said, "Do you know why Suzhou Prefecture's tax is 10% of the entire Ming Dynasty?"
Everyone looked at each other and stopped talking.
Li Ruolian said softly: "My boss, there are several opinions among the people about this. One is the population of Suzhou Prefecture;
If there is no problem with the Fish Scale Yellow Book, there are almost five million people in Suzhou Prefecture. A large population naturally means more taxes;
Secondly, Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice, rich in food.
In other places, the yield of two stones per mu is considered high, but in this Jiangnan land, two stones is just the normal level, basically two and a half to three stones. The grain output is high, and the taxes are naturally high;
Third, since the Song Dynasty, there have been many official fields in the areas south of the Yangtze River. After Taizu established his capital in Nanjing, there were more official fields than before. The official fields were heavily taxed, which led to the taxation of the surrounding people's fields;
Finally, it is said that when Taizu attacked Suzhou, the wealthy businessmen in Suzhou defected to Zhang Shicheng. It took Taizu siege for ten months to defeat him. In anger, Taizu increased heavy taxes as punishment!
However, I believe that this last point is a deliberate attempt by the people to discredit Taizu. "
"These are all superficial phenomena, not the root of the problem!"
Chongzhen shook his head and pointed at the endless flow of pedestrians and merchants outside the window: "Do you know Wang Shizhen?"
"I know that a minister during the reign of Emperor Shizong and Emperor Shenzong had a very rich resume. He served as the chief envoy and inspector of Shandong, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Huguang, Guangxi and other provinces. He was dismissed for offending Zhang Juzheng.
But what he is really famous for is his achievements in literature and history, especially "Gu Bu Gu Lu", which records the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty in extremely detail.
From the ministries to the prefectures and counties, many officials would refer to this book, and together with several others, they were called the Seven Sons of Jiajing. "
"Wang Shizhen once evaluated Suzhou, saying that Suzhou City is a place where wealth comes from (agriculture, industry and commerce) or where all kinds of skills and skills are gathered (industrial collection).
Or the cave (commercial) where the monks and monks relied, it can be said to be the most prosperous county in the world.
Do you know what these represent? "
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Chongzhen continued: "It represents countless wealth. Since there is a lot of money and it is easy to make money, it is natural to shout more.
In addition, taxes can be converted into silver, which is the main reason why Taizu increased the taxes on Suzhou Prefecture.
I guess that Taizu's idea at that time was to emphasize agriculture and suppress business, and hide wealth among the people.
But I don’t want to give up Suzhou’s commercial tax. I feel the commercial development of Suzhou in the past, combined with the population, land yield per mu, etc.,
So here comes this thing, which can not only suppress commercial development, but also force people to farm! "
After hearing the emperor's explanation, everyone suddenly realized.
Especially Li Ruolian, of all the people present, no one knows the situation in Suzhou better than him.
Handicraft industries include textiles, printing, papermaking, shipbuilding, wine making, tea making, etc.;
In terms of commerce, there are Dongting Merchant Gang, Daming Guild Hall, Tianxia Siju, and transportation and dispersion places in the southeastern provinces;
In terms of handicrafts and commerce, each of them was basically the most prosperous in the entire Ming Dynasty.
The commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was 1 in 30. With the prosperity of Suzhou, I dare not say that it was much more. It could collect at least millions of taels of silver a year. It can be seen that Liaodong can sustain it for so many years.
Chongzhen also secretly lamented that Zhu Yuanzhang's decision was correct under the circumstances at that time. He realized the situation at that time and that eating enough was the last word.
Despising and suppressing commerce and low taxes on commerce are the limitations of the situation and the times.
In later generations, commercial taxes were basically above 50%. Although we are now an agricultural society, we must not let go of the commercial aspect.
After the maritime ban is lifted, the taxes generated in Jiangnan will definitely be dozens of times higher than now, and they must be tightly grasped by the court.
"Let's go back to the mansion and wander around Suzhou Prefecture these days, waiting for the big fish to take the bait!"
